Related Works

Works about this Work

A National (Diasporic?) Living Treasure : Thomas KeneallyPaul Sharrad,
2015single work criticism — Appears in:
Le Simplegadi,November
no.
142015;(p. 20-27)AbstractAlthough Thomas Keneally is firmly located as a national figure, his international literary career and his novels’ inspection of colonial exile, Aboriginal alienation, and movements of people throughout history reflect aspects of diasporic experience, while pushing the term itself into wider meaning of the transnational.

'This article is framed by a wider interest in how literary careers are made: what mechanisms other than the personal/biographical and the text-centred evaluations of scholars influence a writer's choices in presisting in building a succession of works that are both varied and yet form a consistently recognizable 'brand'.

Translation is one element in the wider network of 'machinery' that makes modern literary publishing. It is a marker of success that might well keep authors going despite lack of sales or negative reviews at home. Translation rights can provide useful supplementary funds to sustain a writer's output. Access to new markets overseas might also inspire interest in countries and topics other than their usual focus or the demands of the home market.

The Australian novelist and playwright Thomas Keneally achieved a critical regard for fictions of Australian history within a nationalist cultural resurgence, but to make a living as a writer he had to keep one eye on overseas markets as well. While his work on European topics has not always been celebrated at home, he has continued to write about them and to find readers in languages other than English.

Poland features in a number of Keneally books and is one of the leading sources of translation for his work. The article explores possible causes and effects around this fact, and surveys some reader responses from Poland. It notes the connections that Keneally's Catholic background and activist sympathies allow to modern Polish history and assesses the central place of his Booker-winning Schindler's Ark filmed as Schindler's List.' [Author's abstract]

Religion, Class and Nation in Contemporary Australian FictionStella Borgk Barthet,
2009single work criticism — Appears in:
Kunapipi,vol.
31no.
12009;(p. 83-94)Abstract'This article tackles the charge of elitism levelled at some Australian writers by Australian critics and suggests that these assessments may be biased because of an over-emphasis on class. This kind of criticism connects elitism with the writers' appropriation of the spiritual for the endorsement of the nation, and either rejects works that treat the spiritual, or it refuses to acknowledge a spiritual element in writing that is accepted for its working-class ethos. Through readings of David Malouf's The Conversation at Curlow Creek and Thomas Keneally's A Family Madness and The Office of Innocence, I question the connection that has been made between high literariness and the symbolic endorsement of the White nation in Australia.' Source: The author.

Religion, Class and Nation in Contemporary Australian FictionStella Borgk Barthet,
2009single work criticism — Appears in:
Kunapipi,vol.
31no.
12009;(p. 83-94)Abstract'This article tackles the charge of elitism levelled at some Australian writers by Australian critics and suggests that these assessments may be biased because of an over-emphasis on class. This kind of criticism connects elitism with the writers' appropriation of the spiritual for the endorsement of the nation, and either rejects works that treat the spiritual, or it refuses to acknowledge a spiritual element in writing that is accepted for its working-class ethos. Through readings of David Malouf's The Conversation at Curlow Creek and Thomas Keneally's A Family Madness and The Office of Innocence, I question the connection that has been made between high literariness and the symbolic endorsement of the White nation in Australia.' Source: The author.

'This article is framed by a wider interest in how literary careers are made: what mechanisms other than the personal/biographical and the text-centred evaluations of scholars influence a writer's choices in presisting in building a succession of works that are both varied and yet form a consistently recognizable 'brand'.

Translation is one element in the wider network of 'machinery' that makes modern literary publishing. It is a marker of success that might well keep authors going despite lack of sales or negative reviews at home. Translation rights can provide useful supplementary funds to sustain a writer's output. Access to new markets overseas might also inspire interest in countries and topics other than their usual focus or the demands of the home market.

The Australian novelist and playwright Thomas Keneally achieved a critical regard for fictions of Australian history within a nationalist cultural resurgence, but to make a living as a writer he had to keep one eye on overseas markets as well. While his work on European topics has not always been celebrated at home, he has continued to write about them and to find readers in languages other than English.

Poland features in a number of Keneally books and is one of the leading sources of translation for his work. The article explores possible causes and effects around this fact, and surveys some reader responses from Poland. It notes the connections that Keneally's Catholic background and activist sympathies allow to modern Polish history and assesses the central place of his Booker-winning Schindler's Ark filmed as Schindler's List.' [Author's abstract]

A National (Diasporic?) Living Treasure : Thomas KeneallyPaul Sharrad,
2015single work criticism — Appears in:
Le Simplegadi,November
no.
142015;(p. 20-27)AbstractAlthough Thomas Keneally is firmly located as a national figure, his international literary career and his novels’ inspection of colonial exile, Aboriginal alienation, and movements of people throughout history reflect aspects of diasporic experience, while pushing the term itself into wider meaning of the transnational.